Is there a distinction between h+!h* and h+l* in standard German? evidence from an acoustic and auditory analysis

Rathcke, Tamara; Harrington, Jonathan

doi:10.21437/SpeechProsody.2006-164

Is there a distinction between h+!h* and h+l* in standard German? evidence from an acoustic and auditory analysis

Tamara Rathcke, Jonathan Harrington

This paper is concerned with intonation in German and whether there is a phonological distinction between two types of early peaks H+L* and H+!H*. Speech perception and production data are presented to shed light on this issue. The results show little evidence for a phonological distinction between these categories. The results are interpreted in terms of the relationship between downstep and early peak placement in German.